When it struck me that i've been waiting since birth to find
A love that would look and sound like a movie..."
Such a good song.
ANYWAYS - LONDON LONDON LONDON, my first real life love affair!
Where do I begin? I suppose at the beginning, and when I come to the end, I'll stop.
We left Sevilla with relatively little problems, I did have to pay for extra baggage though... 60 euro... lame. We got into Gatwick ahead of schedule, and I was a little worried that we would have to wait for a while to catch the bus into the city centre, but luckily I came across a very warm English woman who was willing to skip her break, wait outside with us and make sure the bus driver would allow us to ride early and with extra luggage. This was such a wonderful feeling after being numbed by the cold Spanish soul for 4 months. It took about an hour to get into town, then we bought a pass for the Tube (the subway system). We got a little turned around, but when we finally arrived at the hostel, and after we hauled all our luggage up 3 flights of stairs, we were exhausted. But alas, you can't be a hermit when in London, so we headed right off for the London Eye! Basically it's a HUGE ferris wheel that you stand in - in fact, up to about a dozen people can stand in each pod - and it takes about 30-40 minutes to ride around. It gives you an amazing opportunity to see the entire city with a bird's eye view.
Afterwards, we walked over to Big Ben and the Parliament building. We tried to take a bunch of photos, but the English rain was getting in our way... more arsty fartsy than anything else. We really had no plans or agenda for the evening, so we just kept walking around to explore. We headed back to West Kensington where our hostel was and grabbed dinner at a pub... fish and chips :)
Then we headed off for sweet dreams in the lovely London town.
The next morning we woke up nice and early to hunt down a breakfast. We had a pretty hard time finding any food, but we ended up eating a full English breakfast at this place called Cilantro. Eggs, sausage, pastrami bacon, baked beans, roasted tomatoes, mushrooms and toast with hot tea. Breakfast is my all time favorite meal, so I really enjoyed it. We scarfed it all down then ran through St. James Park to get to Buckingham Palace to see the Changing of the Guards. I really had no idea of what would happen during the ceremony, I was just told not to miss it. There were what seemed to be a gabillion people pushing and shoving to get pictures of the guards... I really didn't care to stay to long because it was too much pomp and circumstance to risk being trampled by a bunch of pre-pubescent French kids on a field trip.
Next on the agenda: Westminster Abbey.
Probably my favorite part of the entire trip. Unfortunately, no one is able to take photos inside, but man oh man would I have torn it up had I been allowed. There is so much freaking history there - I mean it's just an amazing, jaw dropping collection of historical figures and stories. Highlights for me: the tomb of Lewis Caroll and Elizabeth I. For those of you who don't know, Elizabeth I is probably the one person from history I would chose to sit down and have a cup of coffee with... I don't even drink coffee... basically I would drink my own urine just to meet her in person. I love her. Not going to lie either - I might have gotten a little overwhelmed and teary eyed at the sight of her tomb. She is buried with Mary Tudor (Bloody Mary), her half sister and original rival, and on their tomb is inscribed : "Partners both in throne and grave, here rest we two sisters, Elizabeth and Mary, in the hope of one resurrection." Dawwwwwh, so sweet. LOVE IT.
Probably my favorite part of the entire trip. Unfortunately, no one is able to take photos inside, but man oh man would I have torn it up had I been allowed. There is so much freaking history there - I mean it's just an amazing, jaw dropping collection of historical figures and stories. Highlights for me: the tomb of Lewis Caroll and Elizabeth I. For those of you who don't know, Elizabeth I is probably the one person from history I would chose to sit down and have a cup of coffee with... I don't even drink coffee... basically I would drink my own urine just to meet her in person. I love her. Not going to lie either - I might have gotten a little overwhelmed and teary eyed at the sight of her tomb. She is buried with Mary Tudor (Bloody Mary), her half sister and original rival, and on their tomb is inscribed : "Partners both in throne and grave, here rest we two sisters, Elizabeth and Mary, in the hope of one resurrection." Dawwwwwh, so sweet. LOVE IT.
We then hopped on the tube to go to Madame Toussaud's Wax Museum. HOW FUN! I had no idea what to expect, but as soon as we walked in, we were bamboozled by famous figures on all sides, and fake paparazzi snapping their photos. It took us about an hour and a half to get through the whole thing, but we really got some cute pictures and saw some amazing figures... too many to list off, but two of my favorites were Humphrey Bogart and OBAMA!
We grabbed a quick meal after the museum, but didn't really know what we wanted to do with ourselves that night. My roommate Liz had told me to try and check out a show since London has so many theatres in every corner of town - so we jaunted over to Convent Garden and decided to check the box offices. We decided to see SPRING AWAKENING... AND. IT. WAS. PHENOMENAL! I never consider myself much of a musical lover, but man oh man I'm wrong. The story takes place in the 1800s in Germany - it's about a bunch of teens who are in a boarding school, slowly finding out about their sexuality and how the world works. The tagline for the show, which I loved was "This musical will make your heart ache with love and throb with lust." Hahaha. Lust. The actors were all in their early twenties, so the cast was very energetic and cohesive in spirit. The songs ranged from very heavy ballads to rock anthems and they really showed of the abilities of the cast. I literally felt refreshed walking out of the theatre and couldn't stop talking about it the whole way home. I would recommend it to anyone.
The next morning we woke up early again and went to the Tower of London - something that I've wanted to see for so long! It must be said though - it was totally different than what I had imagined it to be. Smaller? That doesn't seem right, because in actuality the grounds were huge - the buildings expansive and anyone could see at first glance how absolutely steeped in history it all was. Pete and I decided to split up for the majority of the tour, so we could each see the things that mattered most to us. I went through the medieval palace of King Edward, saw the Crown Jewels of the English Throne, saw the tower green where so many were executed (like Lady Jane Grey) and even saw the site where the scaffolds were... oh Anne Boleyn, I still feel for you girl.
They also had a huge exhibition of Henry VIII's personal effects like armor, clothing and such. That was really interesting to see how intense everything had to be made back then - not only because of the age, but because of how insane Henry VIII was. Conspicuous consumption has never really been overrated apparently.
They also had a huge exhibition of Henry VIII's personal effects like armor, clothing and such. That was really interesting to see how intense everything had to be made back then - not only because of the age, but because of how insane Henry VIII was. Conspicuous consumption has never really been overrated apparently.
We then walked to the Tate Modern - which was a big disappointment for me. For some reason I was under the impression that the collection would be more modern instead of contemporary... the latter of which I tend to dry heave at. We only spent about a half hour, finding the artists we recognized and observing the pieces that interested us the most... but then we high tailed it out of there.
After a quick photo op at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre (check out these beautiful birches mama!)
and St. Paul's Cathedral, we went and grabbed lunch at a pub and then bummed around in a few shops. We found ourselves on the tube headed toward Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens shortly after... what a pretty day for a waltz in the park too! We just frolicked down the trails, stopped to pay homage to Princess Di at her memorial fountain and of course to Peter Pan.
There were beautiful fountains and a huge lake just swarming with ducks and swans, so we spent a while enjoying the scenery before we headed back to the hostel.
At that point in time we were both feeling pretty run down from hyper-tourism over the past 2 and a half days, so we decided to pack and call it an early night. BUT - we did walk down the way to a TESCO - I have finally come to terms with the fact that going to grocery stores in foreign countries is one of my favorite things to do! I love looking at the different products they sell... trying new candies or juices or whatever strikes my fancy... i just adore it. I decided to buy a huge box of cereal and a gallon of milk AND grapes for dinner/breakfast... all 3 being things that i had been severely deprived of in Spain. Man oh man, that could have been my last meal on earth and it wouldn't have mattered- because I was as happy as a pig in poop with just the bare essentials.
and St. Paul's Cathedral, we went and grabbed lunch at a pub and then bummed around in a few shops. We found ourselves on the tube headed toward Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens shortly after... what a pretty day for a waltz in the park too! We just frolicked down the trails, stopped to pay homage to Princess Di at her memorial fountain and of course to Peter Pan.
There were beautiful fountains and a huge lake just swarming with ducks and swans, so we spent a while enjoying the scenery before we headed back to the hostel.
At that point in time we were both feeling pretty run down from hyper-tourism over the past 2 and a half days, so we decided to pack and call it an early night. BUT - we did walk down the way to a TESCO - I have finally come to terms with the fact that going to grocery stores in foreign countries is one of my favorite things to do! I love looking at the different products they sell... trying new candies or juices or whatever strikes my fancy... i just adore it. I decided to buy a huge box of cereal and a gallon of milk AND grapes for dinner/breakfast... all 3 being things that i had been severely deprived of in Spain. Man oh man, that could have been my last meal on earth and it wouldn't have mattered- because I was as happy as a pig in poop with just the bare essentials.
We woke up the next morning and went to Tesco again to buy lunches and snacks for our day at the airport. We arrived there safe and sound, masters of the tube, with time to spare. We flew with a different airline which was great, and I didn't have to pay any extra fees.
Next chapter: Edinburgh, ay!
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